to be continued…
Month: February 2015
65. Berlinale – The look of silence ( 2014), How to win at checkers (every time) [2015], Der Bunker (2015)
To be continued….
65. Berlinale – 600 milas (2015), Prins (2015), Forbidden Room (2015)
600 Miles, Directed by Gabriel Ripstein
Very realistic, great action scenes, full of suspense and very well played end credits. G.Ripstein and T. Roth made it.
Prins, Directed by Sam de Jong
Programmed in the Generation 14 plus section, but got also well accepted by the older (20+) audience. Here more from Sam De Jong, hope to see more from him soon.
The Forbidden Room, Directed by Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin Enjoys doing experiMENTAL projects currently, unfortunately not everyone in the audience enjoyed watching the over 2 hours long Forbidden Room.
65th Berlinale: Ned Rifle (2014), Joe Bullet (1971) and Umbango (1988) firecrackers
Ned Rifle (2014), music,directed, written by Hal Hartley:
It is hard to find out at the beginning, if the film is a comedy with dramatic elements or a drama with few funny scenes. One you can be sure of: it is funny for at least half of it’s length (depending on your sense of humor of course). The dialogs / monologues are really well constructed, you actually want to listen to them despite their horrific length. James Urbaniak is hilarious, did he really took comedy classes from Llloyd Kaufamann ? Let’s hope not. In general I can say that “facing his inner clown” went very well for Hal Hartley. Eloquently funny.
Joe Bullet (1971/1973) written & produced by Tonie van der Merwe, directed and photographed by Louis de Witt:
Forget about Shaft, Black Belt Jones and Dolemite, Joe bullet is the new hero and will end the corruption in the football / soccer World. This film tops many of the Blaxploitation films I’ve seen. Action, suspense, gadgets, romance, sports – What else can you want from a movie ? A great music theme? It has it too!
Who is Tony van der Merwe?
What is Gravel Road Entertainment Group ?
Joe Bullet Trailer
Joe Bullet page
imdb.com says:
One of the first South African films featuring an all-African cast, and starred Ken Gampu, one of the first black South African actors to appear in Hollywood films. Independently released in 1972 in the Eyethu cinema in Soweto, and after only two screenings, the film was banned by the then Apartheid government. The film was later unbanned after special appeal and a personal screening to the Minister of Communications. The film was, however, never released again and simply disappeared. Now, after more than 40 years, the film has been digitally restored and finally available for world-wide release.
Umbango (1988/1986) directed and photographed by Tonie van der Merwe:
Second of the Gravel Road films shown at the festival, a western with only one caucasian actor (that dies in the first 1/3 of the film). Was entertaining, but had also it’s bad moments.
Umbango trailer
Gravel Road page.
65th Berlin Film Festival
has started, and I’m in Berlin (for few days).
Ida (2013)
what is not great about this film ? pretty hard to find an answer to this question other than “almost nothing”as this film is just ingenious.
The plot (imdb):
Anna, a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland, is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
The recent Polish movie that took on a similar subject was W.Pasikowski’s “Pokłosie“, Ida however takes a different perspective on this. The time period that the movie is settled in has been a great choice from the writers; Shot in B&W and 4:3- another great element of Ida.
